News and Analysis
SMBs Scramble to Capitalize on an Early Amazon Prime Day
Small and mid-size businesses saw record-breaking sales during Amazon’s Prime Day in 2020, with an increase of nearly 60% year-over-year. But with so much of the retail space currently in transition and an early Prime Day on the horizon, SMBs are scrambling to ensure they can take advantage of the corporate holiday this year.
Retail Heavyweights Add Visual Search Experiences for Shoppers
When you haven’t stepped foot inside a store for months, navigating crowded aisles can be disconcerting. With products moving to new locations, and sales associates in scarce supply, major retailers are doubling down on visual search experiences to keep customers in the loop.
Swiftly Closes the Online-to-Offline Loop for Grocers and CPGs
Swiftly co-founder and CTO Sean Turner told me his company wants to be the “Google analytics for brick-and-mortar,” helping retailers, especially grocers, and consumer-packed goods brands not only sell and market their products online but also measure how both online and physical channels are performing.
Commentary
A Compliance-Privacy Tsunami Will Slam Into the Data Ecosystem in 2019: Big Changes to Watch
SPONSORED, by Neil Sweeney, CEO of Freckle IoT / Killi: The takeaway for 2019 will be consent management. Why is this going to be the trend? Two reasons — the first is because consent management is nonexistent in today’s technology stacks (and, no, the catch-all ‘do you accept’ button will not be sufficient moving forward for consent management). And, second: a compliance/privacy tsunami will bear down on the entire world (not just advertising) in 2019. Every trend in 2019 will tie back to a company’s ability, or inability, to check the box on consent management.
Will 2019 Be Remembered as the Year of GMB Messaging?
Mihm to Blumenthal: Absent a messaging competitor, even a handful of conversations with real customers make businesses *think* Facebook is where the party is. In reality, as you and plenty of others have found, 90% of actual leads are coming from Google. And a serious chunk of that 90% comes directly from Google My Business. Per my prediction, Google is *just* starting to push the “Message” CTA to consumers. And I think the floodgates are about to open.
LBMA Podcast: Alexa’s Location Alerts, Starbucks and Uber
On this week’s edition of the Location-Based Marketing Association podcast: CS Hudson, Baidu Maps, XYO Protocol’s blockchain lab, Ariana Grande + YouTube, Alexa’s location alerts, Starbucks + Uber.
Latest Posts
How 5 Brands Use Geo-Targeting to Fuel In-Store Sales
By serving mobile ads based on users’ geographic locations, brands can avoid these types of blunders and hone in on the type of hyper-specific messaging that boosts engagement and click-through rates.
Street Fight Daily: Target Acquires Grand Junction, Lyft Has Capitalized On Uber’s Woes
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Target Acquires Transportation Company Grand Junction to Expand Same-Day Delivery… Lyft Focuses on Self-Driving Cars But Confirms It’s Gotten a Boost from Uber’s Troubles… Ad Institute Challenges Google and Facebook to Improve Measurement Standards…
Can Yelp Extend Its Moment in the Sun?
“[Yelp has] not been very innovative in approaching the many needs of the SMB markets,” Mike Blumenthal writes to David Mihm. “It would seem that there could be (or should have been?) a raft of functionality that they could provide from appointments to customer follow-up that would be a natural fit.”
LinkedIn Focuses on Revving Up Its SMB Efforts
“There is a huge market of smaller companies, and it is a fast-growing segment. There is definitely momentum,” says LinkedIn’s independent agency head Ryan Wilson. “But they are often made to feel like second-class citizens. Enterprise companies have been getting all the love.”
Street Fight Daily: Facebook Explores Offline-to-Online, Foursquare Partners with InfoScout
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Can Brands Create Facebook Custom Audiences Based On Brick-and-Mortar Visits?… Foursquare Partners with InfoScout to Offer Fuller Picture of Customer Journey… Postmates Relies on Streaming Data to Deliver Positive Experiences on Demand…
Openings and New Hires at Signpost, Vendasta, Spirited Media
Every two weeks, Geoff Michener covers some of the latest openings and new hires in this dynamic industry. This week’s edition includes moves and new openings at Rio SEO, CBS and RingPartner.
Raise Report: New Funding for Pro.com, Amplitude, CommonSense Robotics
Every two weeks, we round up some of the biggest fundraises taking place in hyperlocal marketing, commerce, and tech. This week’s edition includes funding for Jebbit, Parse.ly, CarDash, and Booster.
LBMA Podcast: Lyft + Amtrak, Placecast, Reveal Mobile
This Week in Location Based Marketing is a weekly video podcast from the Location Based Marketing Association with Asif Khan and Aubriana Lopez. On the show: Capsule pharmacy, Sony & Shakira, Thin Film, InMarket, McDonald’s.
Street Fight Daily: Marketers Take Note as Snap’s Q2 Disappoints, Uber Infighting Escalates
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Snap Falls 17% as Revenue and Daily User Growth Disappoint… Benchmark Is Suing Kalanick and Uber Over Board Control… Facebook Courts Video Makers for ‘Watch’ Tab with Financial Incentives…
Facebook Talks About Its ‘Shared Future’ With Local News Publishers
In recent sessions, many publishers – most of them focused on local news – are learning best practices of digital publishing that have helped Facebook attract an audience of more than 2 billion subscribers.
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Meta Is Automating Ads, But Brands Still Face a Bigger Problem